Richard Yetter Chappell

Charitable Giving

Since graduate school (2010), I've been a member of Giving What We Can, an organization whose members pledge "to give 10% of their income to the most effective charities they can find." Other academic philosophers who have joined GWWC include: Derek Ball, Nick Beckstead, Nir Eyal, William MacAskill, (founder) Toby Ord, Derek Parfit, Theron Pummer, Janet Radcliffe-Richards, Tim Schroeder, Peter Singer, Neil Sinhababu, and Alex Voorhoeve. I warmly encourage others to consider taking the pledge.

It may sound like a self-sacrificing thing to do, but there's really not that much to it: it's very easy to acclimatize to a 10% change in income (especially if you start early in your career) -- no radical lifestyle changes are required -- and in return you get to achieve an incredible amount of good, helping those who need it most.

If you're curious about where best to donate, check out GiveWell's recommendations -- they are by far the best charity evaluators around. (Some less conventional options, e.g. promoting meta-charities, are further discussed on my blog.)

Finally, I encourage you to give publicly! People are more likely to give to charity when they see that others around them are doing so.